The Expendables

The Expendables - Dir. Sylvester Stallone (2010)


Sylvester Stallone is an action movie icon. He found worldwide success with the Rocky and Rambo franchises before an ill-fated attempt to branch into comedy nearly derailed his career. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to forget about the existence of Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. Stallone returned to his action roots with Cliffhanger and Demolition Man, but things just seemed to go so terribly wrong after that. He starred in a series of forgettable flops like Judge Dredd, Assassins, and a poorly advised remake of the classic revenge film Get Carter. It seemed there was no place in the world for the alpha male hero of the 80’s. Stallone seemed to be passé and destined to drift into the direct-to-video world inhabited by Steven Seagal and Jean Claude-Van Damme. Oddly enough both were approached for Stallone's new film, The Expendables, but both turned down the opportunity.

No doubt that predicament was exactly what the Italian Stallion needed to mount an impressive comeback in the 21st century. Stallone returned to his roots once more and resurrected Rocky Balboa and John Rambo for one more go. Examining their place in this modern world, Stallone found there was still life left in a punch drunk has-been boxer and a burnt out Vietnam vet.

Now in his mid-60’s, Stallone is experiencing something of a renaissance period. It wasn’t so long ago that Rambo could easily cut down a hundred bad guys by himself with a machine gun that never needed reloading. In Rambo, he had help from a ragtag group of mercenaries. There’s nothing ragtag about the mercenaries in The Expendables. Stallone has assembled an all-star collection of tough guys to kick some serious ass.

Stallone is Barney Ross, the leader of the Expendables. His best friend and right-hand man is Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), a skilled knife-throwing marksman. Also on the team are Yin Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (UFC fighter Randy Couture), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), and the unstable Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren). They have tattoos, ride motorcycles, and have code-names that sound like bad G.I. Joe characters. Still, the Expendables are way tougher than the A-Team and the Losers.

The Expendables begins with the team rescuing hostages from a crew of bloodthirsty Somali pirates. After the battle, Gunner is dumped from the group due to his apparent drug use. In one of the film’s best scenes, Stallone reunites with his Planet Hollywood buddies Bruce Willis and the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold plays a rival soldier of fortune while Willis plays the mysterious Mr. Church who propositions Stallone for a risky mission.

Ross is hired to topple a tin-plated dictator named General Garza (David Zayas) in the South American island nation of Vilena. Ross and Christmas scout out the island and meet their contact, the beautiful Sandra (Giselle Itie), who turns out to be Garza’s daughter. Our heroes discover Garza is in the pocket of rogue CIA agent James Munroe (Eric Roberts) who is using the island as a base for his drug trade. Working as Munroe’s henchmen are British kickboxer Gary Daniels and WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Surmising that they’d be cleaning up the Agency’s own mess, they turn down the job. However, Ross finds himself inspired by Sandra and the Expendables arrive in full force to blow shit up and blow it up good.

Expendables is meant to be a throwback to the action films of the 80’s which featured ridiculous balls-to-the-wall violence, gratuitous nudity, and witty one-liners. Stallone tries to capture the spirit of movies like Commando and Delta Force. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really succeed until the last half hour of the picture.

Following the opening sequence, the film drifts around aimlessly as it works to introduce the various characters. Stallone and co-writer David Callaham toss in a superfluous subplot involving Christmas’s girlfriend, Lacy (Charisma Carpenter), and an abusive boyfriend. The first two acts sag into a quagmire of labored and uninteresting scenes when all you want to see are explosions. The banter between comrades falls flat. About the only moment that comes to life is the scene involving Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger which includes a hilarious dig at Ol’ Arnold. Stallone aims to be the world weary soldier, but he is utterly outmatched in the world weary department by Mickey Rourke. As a retired Expendable turned tattoo artist, Rourke lends a surprising amount of soulfulness to the proceedings. It makes you wish he had a lot more scenes.

After dragging its heels for about an hour, Expendables finally kicks it into high gear when the good guys storm the bad guys’ stronghold. Stallone utilizes the same visceral carnage of the last Rambo film. Human bodies are ripped to shreds by machine gun fire and necks are broken emphatically. Couture and Austin aren’t the only ones who get to bust out MMA and pro wrestling maneuvers. Oh, and Terry Crews hurls an artillery shell with his bare hands. Even though Stallone tries for an old school feel, he falls into the trap so many action directors stumble into. His shots are in too tight and the editing too quick and jumpy for anyone to actually see what's happening on screen.

Stallone should be commended for returning us to the clean, old fashioned fun that comes from mindlessly violent entertainment. However, you wished he had incorporated even more mindlessly violent entertainment. The Expendables is a good action movie, just not a great one.

Rating: ** ½

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer - Dir. Marc Webb (2009)


(500) Days of Summer is the breath of fresh air sorely needed in the stagnant world of the romantic comedy. The booming voice of an omniscient narrator states, ”This is not a love story,” before we are taken on a fractured journey through the highs and lows of a whirlwind relationship.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a button-downed hipster who aspired to be an architect, but now writes sappy greeting cards to pay the bills. He falls for Zooey Deschanel’s Summer Finn, the office’s new assistant. She’s infuriatingly free-spirited and does not believe in love or soul mates, much to the dismay of Tom, the old-fashioned romantic. As the prototypical “manic pixie dream girl,” Deschanel’s character isn’t far removed from her previous roles in Yes Man or Gigantic.

The film unfolds in non-chronological fashion as the 500 day courtship of Tom and Summer is revealed. The narrative jumps from the budding moments of the relationship to its slow disintegration. We watch the young lovers bonding over karaoke where JGL croons “Here Comes Your Man” by The Pixies and Deschanel covers Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town.” Tom lists all the tiny features he loves about Summer, then lists those very same features as what he hates about her the most. Director Marc Webb, working off a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, juxtaposes the couple’s happier moments with a sullen post-breakup Tom. From time to time, Tom seeks advice from his nerdy roommates (Matthew Gray Gubler and Geoffrey Arend) or his exceedingly wise younger sister (Hit-Girl herself Chloe Moretz).

Throughout the film, they utilize inventive ways to play out the highs and lows of their love affair. After consummating their relationship, Tom engages in an elaborate dance number to Hall & Oates. Staring at his reflection, he only sees a dashing Han Solo wink back at him. A split-screen sequence shows us the heartbreaking gap between Tom’s hopeful expectations to the crashing reality. A gag involving a tired spoof of Godard and Bergman falls flat.

(500) Days of Summer breathes new life into a familiar story through visually inventing means.

Rating: ***

Funny People

Funny People - Dir. Judd Apatow (2009)


Judd Apatow is the reigning king of comedy. He has a knack for portraying modern day relationships from the perspective of the overgrown man-child in desperate need of maturity. There’s also a healthy dose of raunchy, low-brow humor thrown in for good measure. Though Apatow has only written and directed two previous films (The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up), he’s stamped his name on numerous others, some successful (Superbad, Pineapple Express) and some not so much (Drillbit Taylor).

For Apatow’s third film, Funny People, Adam Sandler lampoons his own on and off-screen persona as George Simmons, a former stand-up comic turned A-list movie star. His juvenile movies usually involve him turning into a baby or a merman. George is the Charles Foster Kane of comedians. He lives in his own personal Xanadu surrounded by expensive cars and posters adorned with his face, but he is all alone. George’s life doesn’t improve when he’s diagnosed with leukemia. Along the way, he hires Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling stand-up, to be his personal assistant and joke writer. Ira becomes George’s de facto confidant and the closest thing he has to a friend. When his leukemia goes into remission, George attempts to reconnect with a former flame, Laura (Leslie Mann), now married to an adulterous Australian (Eric Bana).

Funny People is Apatow’s most polished looking film thanks to bringing on Spielberg’s long-time cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, as DP. It’s also his most ambitious and mature picture to date. Apatow balances the story of Ira’s rising star with George reflecting on his own narcissism and self-pity. He manages to stray from a formulaic plot with a loose narrative that is both the film’s strongest and weakest point.

Funny People isn’t the lighter fare that audiences are used to from Apatow, but those light moments are some of the film’s best. The movie drifts off on humorous asides such as Ira and George riffing on each other or comparing a German doctor to a Die Hard villain. Apatow also gives us a unique, inside look at the world of stand-up comedy. Littered throughout the film are a series of cameos from various comics like Sarah Silverman, Paul Reiser, and Andy Dick. However, Eminem outdoes them all with a profanity-laced rant directed at Ray Romano.

Yet, Apatow is unable to prevent his film from collapsing underneath the weight of its nearly two and a half hour runtime. At 146 minutes, Funny People is about 30 minutes too long. While engaging for the first two acts, the final act sputters towards a contrived and overly sentimental resolution.

Commenting on his past obnoxious and immature characters, Sandler gives a well-rounded performance, one that is less self-conscious than his most publicized dramatic turn in P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. Shining in supporting roles are Jason Schwartzman as a smarmy roommate who stars in a cheesy Saved by the Bell-esque sitcom and Aubrey Plaza as a sardonic female comic.

Rating: **

Salt

Salt - Dir. Phillip Noyce (2010)


Not so long ago, rumors floated around that Hollywood execs were no longer interested in action films starring female protagonists. This was in response to the box office failures of films like Catwoman, Elektra, and Ultraviolet. I’d wager the suckiness of those pictures had more to do with the lousy scripts than the gender of their stars.

Salt looks to buck the trend casting Angelina Jolie as the title character. Ironically, the film was originally conceived with a male protagonist. Tom Cruise was initially attached before dropping out to star in the abysmal Knight and Day.

Jolie plays CIA agent Evelyn Salt. The name seems to have chosen so critics could come up with headlines like, “Jolie worth her salt” or “Needs more salt.” Anyways, the picture begins with Salt being tortured in North Korea after her cover is blown. She is eventually freed and exchanged for another agent partly due to efforts from future husband Mike Krause (August Diehl), an etymologist specializing in spiders.

2 years later, Salt and her handler, Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), interrogate a Russian defector named Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski). Orlov claims to have trained sleeper agents from childhood to infiltrate the United States. Apparently, one agent has been activated and charged with assassinating the Russian President. That agent…Evelyn Salt. On the run, she looks to clear her name and find her missing husband. If she’s the Fugitive, then Chiwetel Ejiofor from Serenity is Tommy Lee Jones.

Salt plays like a fast and loose version of The Bourne Identity with the plot existing only to service a string of action sequences. Not surprising since the script was written by purveyor of schlock, Kurt Wimmer, who also wrote and directed Equilibrium and the aforementioned Ultraviolet. The plot is thin, predictable, and lacking any real suspense. Wimmer dusts off the Russians as the film’s primary villains. While it may seem outdated, recent headlines have shown that the Soviets have been using hot women to spy on America.

The largely implausible action sequences are well done with Jolie bouncing off bridges and the rooftops of semi-trucks. She jury rigs a bazooka out of a fire extinguisher and blocks a security camera with her panties. Salt marks the welcome return of Phillip Noyce to the genre, Noyce previously directed Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, the latter featured an excellent shootout, before moving onto politically charged dramas such as, The Quiet American and Catch a Fire.

Jolie is instantly credible as an action heroine. Salt is a better display of her talents than Tomb Raider or Wanted though it’s no less silly.

Rating: **

Despicable Me

Despicable Me - Dirs. Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (2010)


Despicable Me is the first film from Illumination Entertainment, Universal’s new animation division headed by Chris Meledandri, the former president of Fox Animation. It’s also the first supervillain-centric movie of the year with Dreamworks’ Megamind coming out in November. Despicable Me was co-directed by European animators Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud from a script by Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul who previously wrote Horton Hears a Who and The Santa Clause 2.

Steve Carell adopts an indiscernible Slavic accent to voice Gru, a criminal mastermind who considers himself the world’s number one bad guy. In his employ are an elderly inventor named Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and an army of Minions, diminutive creatures who look like Oompa Loompas crossbred with Twinkies. With their assistance, Gru devises a scheme to steal a shrink ray in order to hijack the moon and hold it for ransom. More importantly, Gru hopes to finally impress his hard to please mother, played by Julie Andrews in anti-Julie Andrews mode. Gru’s plan is derailed when the Bank of Evil refuses him a loan and the shrink ray is stolen out from under him by the nerdy Vector (Jason Segel). A dweeb with a bowl cut and an orange track suit, Vector is the new number one whose fortress is impenetrable.

Meanwhile at the orphanage for girls, three adorable little moppets named Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) sell cookies door-to-door for the stern Miss Hattie (voiced by Kristen Wiig, modeled after Edie McClurg). Noticing they can enter Vector’s domain uninhibited, Gru adopts them and before you know it, his icy exterior is melted away.

Despicable Me isn’t the type of multi-layered film that Pixar has mastered. It is fairly one-dimensional, but that one dimension is incredibly entertaining. The movie goes for the gusto as much as possible. If they’re going to have three cute, little girls, they’re going to make them as cute as humanly possible. The same can be said for the movie’s use of 3D, putting the audience on a rollercoaster and throwing various objects at the screen.

Is it as good as Toy Story 3 or How to Train Your Dragon? No, but Despicable Me is well worth seeing on a big 3D screen.

Rating: ***

The Other Guys

The Other Guys - Dir. Adam McKay (2010)


Riggs and Murtaugh. Tango and Cash. Add Hoitz and Gamble to the buddy cop pantheon.

The Other Guys opens in true action film fashion with a rousing car chase through the streets of New York City as top cops, Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson), run down the perpetrators. A massive amount of property damage is done to bring in a few crooks possessing a miniscule amount of marijuana. Back at the station house, Danson and Highsmith are greeted with a hero’s welcome. None of the accolades are thrown the way of Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) and Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell). They don’t blow shit up, they don’t get the girls, nor do they make the big arrests.

Hoitz could be doing those things, if not for an embarrassing shooting mishap, which relegated him to desk duty. His partner, Gamble, is a forensic accountant who gleefully enjoys paperwork and has no desire to see any action in the field. While investigating a minor oversight in construction permits, Gamble and Hoitz uncover a Bernie Madoff-style plot by millionaire mogul David Ershon (Steve Coogan) to embezzle $32 billion.

The main cast also features Michael Keaton as the precinct captain who moonlights as the manager of a Bed Bath and Beyond, Eva Mendes as Gamble’s inexplicably hot wife, Ray Stevenson as an Australian mercenary, and an uncredited Anne Heche as a corrupt CEO employing Ershon.

The Other Guys is the fourth collaboration between director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell following Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Other Guys isn’t as hilarious as the first two films, but it’s several notches above the somewhat crass Step Brothers. As a spoof of buddy cop films, it works better than Kevin Smith’s Cop Out. However, the genre has become such a self-parody of itself that McKay is simply beating a dead horse. Seeing Wahlberg in a slow-mo John Woo shootout isn’t as funny as it should be because the gag has been done to death.

Where the film excels is in the interactions between the lead actors. Wahlberg has given some terribly wooden performances recently in The Happening and The Lovely Bones. He’s better suited for action and comedy and he’s excellent as the hotheaded straight man. Ferrell’s idiot man-child routine wears thin so he wisely tones it down for Other Guys. There’s a slow burn for his character as they slowly reveal the darker side he’s hidden.

McKay tops it off with his own brand of absurdist humor displayed in many hysterical gags sprinkled throughout the film. Some of the funniest bits include: Coogan bribing our heroes with tickets to Jersey Boys, a run-in with a group of horny hobos led by a fellow named Dirty Mike (played by McKay himself), an ending credits sequence utilizing Powerpoint-style animation to explain Ponzi schemes and government bailouts, and Ferrell constantly being hit on by gorgeous women like Brooke Shields (wife of co-writer Chris Henchy).

Rating: ***

Repo Men

Repo Men - Dir. Miguel Sapochnik (2010)


"Can we have your liver?"

Repo Men takes us to a dystopian future where the economy and health care still sucks. The film was directed by Miguel Sapochnik, making his feature-length debut, working from a script by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner. The screenplay was based on a novel by Garcia called Repossession Mambo. Repo Men bares several striking similarities to the Gothic rock opera, Repo! The Genetic Opera, which began life as a stage show.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as Remy and Jake, a pair of repo men working for the Union. The monolithic corporation has created state-of-the-art artificial organs (artiforgs) which it provides to the public on a seemingly easy installment plan. What their lead salesman, Frank (Liev Schreiber), fails to tell his clients is that the repo men will cut the organs out of you should you fail to miss a payment. Remy is the Union’s top repo man, but he has a change of heart (literally) when a malfunctioning defibrillator lands him in the hospital in need of a new ticker. Now possessing an artiforg of his own, Remy can no longer continue his line of work in good conscience. He descends into the lower rungs of society as a fugitive along with Beth (Alice Braga), a sultry nightclub singer with an assortment of artiforgs and cybernetic upgrades. A jilted Jake, who seems to have an obsessive bromantic attachment to his partner,

There’s also a perfunctory subplot involving Remy’s son and estranged wife, played by Carice van Houten in a thoroughly thankless role.

Repo Men had the makings of a decent action flick with two very dependable actors in the lead roles. Instead, the filmmakers seem more than happy to tread water with an utterly unoriginal production. Repo Men references (or rips off, depending on your POV) numerous movies which only serves to remind you just how inferior it really is in comparison. Their look of the future cribs Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, the offices of the Union are right out of THX-1138 and Brazil, and there’s even a bizarre nod to David Cronenberg’s Crash. Worst of all, Repo Men also features the umpteenth knockoff of the famed hallway fight from Oldboy. In an advanced era of technology, it doesn’t make much sense for people to fight each other with meat cleavers and steak knives. On the other hand, there is a sly nod to the organ donor skit from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, a likely inspiration. That may have more to do with Monty Python’s sheer awesomeness than Repo Men.

Jude Law has starred in several underrated sci-fi films like Gattaca, eXistenZ (another of Cronenberg’s), and Spielberg’s oft-maligned A.I. Repo Men cannot be considered one of them. It isn’t underrated, just undeserving. Undeserving of its great cast and undeserving of anyone’s time.

Rating: *½

Astro Boy

Astro Boy - Dir. David Bowers (2009)


Osamu Tezuka has widely been considered to be the god of manga. His dynamic art style and penchant for drawing characters with large, expressive eyes are the images immediately associated with Japanese comics and animation. One of Tezuka’s most beloved creations was the rocket-propelled robot, Astro Boy, who starred in a long-running manga series and several animated shows. Unfortunately, whatever charms Astro Boy possessed were lost in translation for Summit Entertainment’s CG remake.

Set in the year 2108, a privileged few live in the shining metropolis of Metro City, a high-tech city floating above Earth where robots serve the human population. In other words, they live just like the Jetsons. One of the most brilliant minds in Metro City is Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage), the head of the Ministry of Science. Along with Dr. Elefun (Bill Nighy), Tenma works under the auspices of the militaristic President Stone (Donald Sutherland) who is constantly ready to go to war.

Tenma has recently discovered a blue energy source and its opposite and far more unstable red energy. While experimenting with the latter, a tragic accident occurs when Tenma’s son, Toby (Freddie Highmore), is completely vaporized. A mournful father tries to replace his dead child by creating a robot duplicate who, at first, believes he is the real Toby. Soon, Tenma realizes Astro Boy will never be able to replace Toby and casts him out just as Pres. Stone demands he be turned over to create new weapons. Astro Boy is cast out and falls to the world below where he’s taken in by a group of orphans scavenging the scraps tossed away by Metro City.

Animation-wise, Astro Boy has been crafted well with some cool visuals and action sequences. However, it lacks any discernable style or charm to set it apart from the rest of the computer animated films being pumped out every year. It doesn’t have the uniqueness or depth that Pixar has achieved on countless occasions. The quirky and squat look of Tezuka’s characters has been washed away in order to placate mainstream Western audiences. The big eyes are gone, but the machine guns in his buttocks are still there.

The formulaic plot is further hampered by heavy-handed political overtones pounded in with the hammer of obviousness. President Stone is pure Neo-Con odiousness who dismisses the namby pamby blue energy for the ruthless and erratic red.

Astro Boy is bland, inoffensive entertainment, but you could do better watching the works of Miyazaki or Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant.

Rating: **

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Dir. Jon Turteltaub (2010)


Two Bruckheimer productions in one summer? Thank the cinematic gods that the world has not ended underneath a torrent of special effects-laden schlock. Earlier, we saw the release of Prince of Persia, a loud and brainless movie based on a video game. Now, we have The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a loud and brainless movie loosely based on a Mickey Mouse cartoon which, in turn, was based on a poem by Goethe. Aside from a scene involving enchanted mops run amok, this Sorcerer’s Apprentice has very little to do with any of the previous versions.

The film opens in Arthurian times as Merlin (James A. Stephens) falls in a battle against the evil sorceress, Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige), after being betrayed by one of his apprentices, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin’s other apprentices, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), manage to stop the evildoers. Veronica traps Morgana’s soul inside her body and Balthazar in turn traps them both inside a nesting doll. Over the centuries, Balthazar has captured over evil sorcerers (including Horvath) within layers of the doll as he searches for the Prime Merlinian, a magician with the power to destroy Morgana once and for all.

Flash forward to New York City in the year 2000 where a young boy named Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry) stumbles upon a magic shop run by Balthazar. Just as he realizes Dave is the chosen one, Horvath is accidentally freed from his prison. The wizards battle and entrap each other in an enchanted vase for ten years.

Flash forward again to the present day and both are finally released. Meanwhile, a grown-up Dave (Jay Baruchel) is now a physics student at NYU. Since that fateful day, he’s had countless hours of therapy and was forced to transfer to a new school. Dave still has a crush on fellow student, Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), who he knew back in grade school. Dave is thrust into the strange world of magic when he’s placed under the tutelage of the eccentric Balthazar. Together, they must stop Horvath from freeing Morgana and resurrecting an army of the dead to conquer the world.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice takes us on a Cliff Notes edition of the hero’s journey. Much as he did in his last film, She’s Out of My League, Baruchel is the gawky nerd who overcomes his doubts to win the day and get the pretty girl. Director Jon Turteltaub, who previously helmed the National Treasure films, makes sure to throw in plenty of whiz-bang special effects, a car chase, a giant steel eagle, a dragon, and even a few Hadokens for the Street Fighter II fans. Apprentice bounces from lengthy exposition to action sequence in breakneck manner.

Cage sports one of his least bizarre hairstyles for one of his least bizarre roles. It’s refreshing to see Cage restrain himself from his usual mugging of the camera. On the other hand, Molina realizes what a Z-grade film he’s starring in and acts accordingly with mustache twirling glee. The same goes for Toby Kebbell as a Criss Angel-esque illusionist.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the perfect movie for those of you who think Harry Potter could use more explosions and less of those pesky things like plot and character development.

Rating: * ½

The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right - Dir. Lisa Chodolenko (2010)


”They fight just like real people.” - Seth Rogen, Zack & Miri Make a Porno

The Kids Are All Right isn’t a rallying point or an attempt to shift the social paradigm of the LGBT community. Co-written with Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko’s film isn’t about lesbian marriage as much as it is about a marriage that just happens to be between two lesbians.

Annette Bening and Julianne Moore star as Nic and Jules, married with two kids they sired through an anonymous sperm donor. Nic is a successful doctor, something of a perfectionist, and a little controlling. Jules is a little more laid back, slightly flaky. She’s mainly stayed home to take care of the kids while bouncing from one failed business venture to another. She’s just now getting into the landscaping trade. The daughter, Joni, (Mia Wasikowska) has just turned 18 and is ready to move off to college. Her younger brother, Laser (Josh Hutcherson), is at that turbulent teenaged time where he needs a strong male role model, especially in a house full of women.

At his gentle nudging, Joni gets into contact with their sperm donor, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). Paul is a restaurateur with an organic, co-op farm and a motorcycle. He’s free-spirited and free of responsibility. His introduction into their family dynamic is initially awkward, but Jules and the children warm up to him while Nic is reticent. But, a second act plot twist veers the film into soap opera territory, taking the focus off of Paul’s budding relationship with Joni and Laser.

Unlike many indie films these days, the characters feel like fully realized human beings. So often you get movies about characters that are quirky or misanthropic for no real reason. With Kids Are All Right, we get genuine emotion and a tale about the difficulties of any relationship. Laser is noticeably embarrassed when his clingy moms ask for a hug. Nic and Jules engage in an incredibly clumsy attempt at sex while the kids are still at home. Little things like these that anyone, gay or straight, can relate to. Never does Chodolenko draw attention to the sexual orientation of her leads. You never feel the need to describe the film as, ”…but with lesbians.”

Not surprisingly, the performances are strong all around. Paul could have easily been vilified, but Ruffalo imbues him with an immature charm. You sympathize with him even if the other characters don’t. It’s a similar performance to his turn in Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count on Me. Julianne Moore gets to flex her comedic muscles which she rarely shows off. Bening absolutely nails it when a harsh revelation turns her world upside-down.

Rating: ***